A perpetual calendar of what to expect when you're NOT expecting.

Tomorrow marks the 5th annual Menstrual Hygiene Day, also known as MHDay.

The ultimate goal is to create a world where no girl and women is limited because of her period.

Throughout the world there is a lot of progress being made on numerous fronts including education, awareness and accessibility but much more still needs to be done. That is one of the many reasons why I’ll be attending this #MHDay event in Guelph, Ontario.

Anyone in the vicinity is invited to attend what is sure to be an empowering event.

Oh what a wonderful time of year is Spring. The season of renewal and rebirth. I have always lived in Canada, and so don’t know how it is in other lands where winter isn’t so cold and harsh so when the snow finally melts and green slowly taking over the drab dirty white, greys and brown of our northern landscape - I find myself overcome with positive emotions. Now, the first spring flowers are showing their lovely faces - the Snowdrops, Hyacinths and the Crocuses. My neighbour’s Magnolia tree is budding and I am so hopeful for the promise those buds represent. I love this season of rebirth and renewal. I LOVE SPRING! I love the beauty of the circle of life, the stubborn and courageous force for life that lives in plants, and the eternal loyalty of Mother Nature.

Women enjoy a springlike time of renewal each and every month of their child bearing years if they do not become pregnant.

Just think about that for a moment; each and every month women experience a time of renewal...over and over and over again like clockwork. Our bodies are consistently optimistic and ready for life making.

This speaks volumes about the majesty and wonder and glory that is the female body.

Each month a single egg is passes from an ovary, through our reproductive system and disappears into the nether if not fertilized by male sperm.

Then, when a pregnancy does not occur, our womb sheds the nutritious and life creating lining and we bleed it out for a few days or more.

Then that same reproductive system starts again with releasing an egg and preparing a bed.

Think of the lining of the uterus, the white to pale pink section of the Female Empowerment bracelet section, as the time when the bud that is a potential human life is our ready womb. The flower is when the egg is released and while it travels inside of us everything is in full bloom!

Over and over and over.

Could there be anything more powerful and positive?

We can imagine the sense of cosmic strength conveyed as women identified their own inner forces with the turning of the moon, with their own gathering and child-bearing productivities, with the tides, seasons and other manifestations of cyclical change. 

Today I saw a matinee showing of the movie ‘Teen Spirit’ with my daughter.

Elle Fanning has the leading role in this story of a singing competition in the United Kingdom holding auditions on the Isle of Wight for the first time. Violetta V is a 17-year-old girl living with her single mom on a farm, working as a waitress in a diner, attending high school and singing for fun occasionally on open mic night at a small bar. It is here she runs into the character of Vlad who is the only audience member who claps for her and tells her she has a lovely singing voice. He offers her a drive home but this dishevelled older man seems sketchy and she opts out. However, whilst waiting for her bus she is heckled by a foursome of drunken young men and decides the older Russian is now suddenly her safest best to get home. We learn that VLad is a recovering opera singer and current alcholic and genuinely loves music and is enamoured of Violet’s musicality and angelic voice.

This little movie is sweet and sour for me. The minimally sour part is the whole music competition plot; I am not a huge fan of judging competitions and that combined with a slow pace and minimal dialogue throughout the film left me a bit cold.

On the other hand, the developing relationship between teenage Violet, who barely remembers her father since he left when she was a child and the senior Vlad whose own daughter he hasn’t seen in a few years gave me a warm and fuzzy feeling. I quite like being privy to out of the ordinary friendships between unlikely people. They fascinate me. I would like to have an out of the ordinary friendship with an unlikely person.

The cycle of the moon and the menstrual cycle are closely linked. Below please find the current moon phase. Check what colour bead you're on and then follow along with your bracelet and the moon to gain an even greater understanding of how we are connected.

Code Red is an organization that serves to provide personal care and feminine products to homeless women, while promoting awareness surrounding menstrual hygiene as well as global dangers that affect women at large.